256 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pended; he tells us, something like £2,000 (probably French pounds) 

 in his experiments in natural philosoph}-, chemistry and astronomy. 

 Experimental science v.as a new thing and Bacon may well claim to 

 be its founder, though Ptolem}^ experimented on refraction, Galen on 

 the nerves and muscles and the Arabs in various branches of science. 



About the year 1240 Bacon became a friar of the order of St. 

 Francis. If he had seen clearlj', his career was made. Albertus Mag- 

 nus and his great pupil, Thomas Aqiiinas, were the lights of the 

 Dominican Order. The Franciscans would have welcomed and hon- 

 ored a champion who was the superior of Albert and the equal, or 

 almost the equal, of Aquinas. But Bacon had only rough and bitter 

 criticisms for all monks — Franciscans and Dominicans alike. His was 

 an original and hardy genius ; and he proved himself a merciless critic 

 of all celebrities, of every accepted method and conclusion. Alexander 

 of Hales, Doctor Irrefragabilis, was the oracle of the Franciscans. 

 Of his Summa Theologies, Bacon says: It was a load for a horse — 

 true — but — the reputed author did not write it. Albertus Magnus 

 ■wrote libraries of books: All of them that were of any account, says 

 Bacon, could be put in a single volume. Aquinas is vir erroneus et 

 famosus. Of the other doctors, Michael Scot, he says, knew no Greek, 

 Gerhard of Cremona, not even Latin, and William of Morbecke, the 

 friend of Aquinas, was the most ignorant of all. St. Augustine and 

 Origen were full of errors, and St. Jerome did not always understand 

 the scriptures he translated. 



"Never was there so great an appearance of wisdom, nor so much 

 exercise of study as for this last forty years. Doctors are everywhere, 

 in every castle, in every ' burgh, especially the students of the two 

 Orders (Franciscan and Dominican). And yet there never was so 

 much ignorance and error." He condemned the current versions of 

 Aristotle — retranslations from the Arabic of translations once made 

 into Syriac bv Nestorian monks. "The common herd of students," he 

 says, "mope and make asses of themselves over their bad translations 

 and waste their time, their trouble and their money." In fact, he 

 declares, "What the mass of men believe is necessarily false." As for 

 the works of Aristotle, he would burn them all. 



It is no wonder that Bacon was disciplined and imprisoned in Paris 

 during the }ears 1257 to 1267. How severe his punishment was we 

 shall never know. A part of it was rigorous. He was forbidden books 

 and copyists, kept on bread and water. At times, however, he had 

 pupils, copyists and some slight degree of liberty. He was condemned 

 by a council of his order propter quasdam novitates suspectas — in 

 reality because his harsh and innovating spirit diffused uneasiness all 

 about him. It is charitable if we do not pronounce him envious. With 

 Albertus Magnus and Aquinas he made up a trio of really great men, 



